review

Mike Ness is happy to be home. Taking the stage Wednesday at House of Blues Anaheim, he was playful and grinning from ear to ear as his venerable Orange County band Social Distortion launched a sold-out 25-date (so far) run of Southwest HOB venues, including more nights at Downtown Disney, plus dates in San Diego, West Hollywood and three shows in Las Vegas.

After releasing its seventh studio album, “Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes,” nearly two years ago, Social D hit the road hard and fast, embarking on a few treks across the U.S. as well as extended stints through Europe and Australia. Well-received by fans and critics alike, the album has been a remarkable success for a group that continues to put out new material only sporadically (the previous effort was 2004's “Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll”).

If Ness and his players – guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham, bassist Brent Harding and drummer David Hidalgo Jr. – were experiencing any post-tour fatigue, it certainly didn't show here. The group was fired up, coming out furious with “So Far Away” then heading straight into “Bad Luck,” a track the local punk hero had performed just the night before alongside rock icon Bruce Springsteen at Honda Center.

The band definitely had more energy than the audience this night, however. Mostly male fans of various ages tended to rock back and forth and casually sing along, prompting Ness to call them out for a lack of enthusiasm.

“It's hard to relax when you know you've got to get up and go to work in the morning,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Kind of a bummer, isn't it? Just take tomorrow off.”

The fearless frontman's go-ahead to party it up enlivened the docile room, as people began to roar along to newer cuts such as “Machine Gun Blues” and “Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown” and older staples such as “Cold Feelings” and “Telling Them.” The addition of two gorgeous female backing vocalists once more bolstered the most soulful tunes and helped rouse the crowd, though they were stuffed way too far back into a corner of the stage.

House of Blues doesn't always have the best sound, but the guys working the boards this night deserve major credit for finding the sweet spot, as the audio was crisp and consistent, illustrating just how powerful this band and these songs can be without blasting out eardrums.

Naturally, Social Distortion will change up set lists from night to night. This time they tossed in a few rarer options, including a rocking harmonica-infused version of “Drug Train” and, in the encore, “Black Magic,” a song Ness meant to put on 1996's “White Light, White Heat, White Trash” but had “forgot all about it … or something.”

Post-show, some fans could be heard grumbling that one of the band's biggest hits, “Ball and Chain,” was left out. But they were still treated to “Story of My Life,” which Ness, who turned 50 in April, noted has been played at “every single (show) for 20 years. … It's just three little (dumb) chords.”

Chattier than usual, he shared stories about growing up in Orange County, hanging out with friends who would pick oranges from the sprawling groves nearby and throw them at each other as they walked along the railroad tracks. He trailed off a little as he reminisced, abruptly stopping mid-sentence: “I'm writing a book right now. You can read about it there.”

That should be an interesting read, considering the rocky life Ness has led. But it's only brought him here, to moments like this where he can take time to reflect and toss out tidbits of wisdom to his admirers. This night he mentioned a lesson that took him decades to learn: “I finally figured out that the pen is mightier than the sword,” he noted before getting into “Far Behind,” a previously unreleased track that closed out the band's 2007 greatest-hits disc.

Wednesday's opener, which will be followed by replays tonight, Monday and Tuesday, ended with the group's rocked-out rendition of Johnny Cash's “Ring of Fire,” before which Ness gave shout-outs to the artists that inspired the troublemaking punk from Fullerton in his early years: the Rolling Stones, Johnny Thunders, the Ramones.

He ultimately had the crowd chanting the country legend's name, adding “don't even think about forgetting Johnny (bleepin') Cash!”

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